Director, Studio Head Reportedly Clash Over 'Wolverine'

That's funny: We were just talking about the dark tone of superhero movies and how it fits today's moviegoing audience better than indestructible saves-the-day types (think Batman vs. Superman), and now there's a rumor that Fox brass and X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood are having some disagreements over the mood of one of next summer's big tickets. Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is reporting that Hood and Fox CEO Tom Rothman don't share the same instincts when it comes to Wolverine. Case in point: Apparently, a huge set was constructed for the film and it was designed to be "dark, dingy, and somber" to fit the palette Hood was creating. While the director was away from the set, it was repainted with brighter colors and looked a lot more like the vision Rothman is said to have for the movie. Uh-oh, Spaghetti-Ohs. Wells acknowledges that the full story is probably not as cut and dry as the report, although that's certainly not the first case of a studio chief imposing his will on a pet project as he sees fit. Who knows what kind of behind-the-scenes conversations Hood and the studio have had. Perhaps the director had already agreed to brighten up the set and upon seeing that it hadn't been done, Rothman made an executive decision. Having seen the very good teaser trailer and knowing more about Wolverine than I do almost any other comic book character, Hood's vision is more correct. I wonder why, as a studio chief, you'd hire a guy who understands that character and can give you a pretty accurate and artistic interpretation of him if what you really want is a Michael Bay movie. On the flip side, the X-Men series wasn't as gothic as Nolan's Batman franchise, and shouldn't be, so maybe Rothman feels it should more closely resemble the earlier films. Still, there's a time and place for those decisions to be made and it's not the two days when the director isn't on the set. I do find it at the very least amusing that in the message board section for Rothman at IMDB, the four forum posts listed are, "Why is he still here?," "Why no one likes this guy," "This guy is such a sleazebag," and "How come nobody likes you?" Hood would ultimately lose the battle if Rothman did, in fact, order the set repainted and does, in fact, want to see the production through his way. As long as it doesn't resemble either Fantastic Four movie, I think we'll still be OK, because the cast for Wolverine is so solid and there's no way they're going to re-shoot all the stuff that makes the trailer come alive. Economically, you can't do it. So a compromise is in order. I don't mind the sets being repainted, even though it could be just the tip of the iceberg. Hood should try to work around those issues while he can in order to keep the character arc. You can always try to change the look of things in post-production.

Comments

[Will]

Shows how much is riding on this film being a huge smash. Of course, if the finished product is as cool as the trailer is, we have nothing to worry about...looks to me like Hood is hitting the mark.